The illustrative embodiments described in the present application are useful in systems including those for electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) and more particularly are useful in systems including those for electronic bill presentment using a third party.
Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment systems have several forms. For example, in a direct bill model, a vendor such as a credit card company maintains an internet based system for processing EBPP transactions for customers of the particular credit card company. Such bill direct EBPP systems are popular with credit card customers, but the adoption rate for systems provided by other types of vendors such as utilities is low.
Additionally, systems based upon a consolidator model exist. For example, EBPP consolidators such as the MYCHECKFREE.COM® EBPP portal allow customers to enroll for e-bills from one or more vendors that participate in the particular consolidator program. In such a system, the customer may access bills from multiple vendors and make payments using one portal. The consolidator may then arrange for consolidated payments to the vendors that incorporate payments from multiple users.
Home banking online systems have become popular with adoption rates of approximately 50%. Certain home banking systems allow for online bill payments. In a typical home banking system having an electronic payment option, a consolidator processes the payments. If a particular vendor is not enrolled with the consolidator, a paper check is cut and mailed to the vendor. In such systems, the bill may not be electronically presented to the user, but the user may enter a payment for processing.
The National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) is an industry organization that is said to develop operating rules and business practices for the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network and for electronic payments in areas including Internet commerce and electronic bill and invoice presentment and payment (EBPP, EIPP).
NACHA describes an Electronic Bill Information Delivery Service (EBIDS). The EBIDS system uses the ACH network as a bill information delivery and payment solution. In the EBIDS system, a biller creates a summary electronic bill as a zero-dollar ACH transaction and the biller's financial institution originates the ACH billing file into the ACH network. The consumer's financial institution receives the summary bill file and makes the summary billing information available to the consumer. The consumer views the summary bill and instructs the financial institution to make payment. The consumer's financial institution creates an ACH credit and routes the payment along with the remittance data through the ACH network and the payment is processed.